Torrenting on VPN setups
After having a not so great experience with seedboxes (from a provider that shall not be named), I am trying to create a setup where my torrenting traffic goes over a VPN, while maintaining regular network connectivity so I can use it for other purposes.
Enabling a VPN the regular way leads to loss of all network connectivity, as is expected.
I guess one way would be to build a transmission+wireguard container and use a VPN inside that container, and expose the transmission web port in the usual manner. I'd like to hear if folks have other ideas, or if there's an easier solution.
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A lot of torrent clients can use a proxy (HTTP/SOCKS), not sure on performance but it's worth testing. Either remotely (a totally normal proxy) or something like gluetun that has VPN inside the container and exposes an HTTP proxy.
I saved this GitHub repo a while ago, maybe check it out.
https://github.com/qBitMF/qBitMF
You could always get a portable Glinet VPN Router for like 30€ish and have the device you do the torrenting on only get Internet through that router (it does not always have to be connected to the vpn router, but when you torrent it should).
Ympker's VPN LTD Comparison, Uptime.is, Ympker's GitHub.
Get a VPN provider that also provides a SOCKS5 proxy. Has been my setup and worked flawlessly for the past 10 years. Deluge and many other torrent clients will allow you to put in proxy/login info, so your torrent traffic will all go over the SOCKS proxy and any other applications will use your normal, non-VPN connection.
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A good way to get banned from many private trackers
Tldr: don't use it on private tracker it will be nightmare
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Of course, always check trackers rules. Most private trackers allow seeding from vpns.
UDP can get tricky via a proxy: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/11735
Secondly, if you cannot accept incoming connections (as also the case with proxy), you are likely to lose out on little-seeded torrents, as the few remaining seeds might be connected via a NAT ISP and rely only on connecting to others as well.
For myself I once tried running a torrent client in its own "network namespace" (netns), with the only connection from it being a tunnel outside. Even that did not appear to work reliably, I was getting less peers than usual, and it seemed far too complex overall.
As such, my suggestion would be to get a dedi or VPS with enough storage space and run a torrent client there, making it your own personal seedbox.
Seeding from a VPN connection is fine for a lot of trackers, but I think the main problem would be the "multiple VPNs" part. Trackers will find it suspicious if the IPs wildly change in different subnets (assuming you'd use qBitMF with different locations and servers).
Personally I run qBitTorrent via a WireGuard container using a VPN provider that supports port forwarding. Works well enough for my usage.
Website: thomassen.sh
+1 for gluetun. I've been using it with Mullvad for a long time for torrenting. In kernel wireguard, port forwarding, and IPV6 all work like a charm. Runs rootless in podman with NET_ADMIN and NET_RAW capabilities routing all my rtorrent/radarr/sonarr container traffic thru Mullvad.
I'm thinking of using a VPN only because I'm trying to avoid DMCA notices, and was planning to use Keepsolid's RO location for this purpose. Is there another way that avoids these issues, instead of trying to get a DMCA ignored VPS?
This
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WireGuard works in network namespace.
You can try:
--network none.This guarantees qBittorrent traffic cannot leak onto native network connection.
HostBrr aff best VPS; VirmAche aff worst VPS.
Unable to push-up due to shoulder injury 😣
Simple get into a private tracker, No fear of copyright notice on those
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What I’m downloading is on a public tracker; I don’t believe there is a private tracker for the content I’m looking for.
This a one time thing or recurring?
Recurring.
Why not get a decent seedbox. Got to be less hassle.
Ah, ok ... I'd hook you up if it was a one-off.
I use socks 5 from pia and qbittorent. Mostly works but is occasionally kinda bugy. Would reccomend avoiding this route though,gets annoying.
Recommended hosts:
Letbox, Data ideas, Hetzner
What you need is VPN provider with this options. I know SurfShark have it and its working great. It let you choose which apps to go thru vpn, leaving others on your home network.
Or you can always buy KS-1 and setup seedbox. Works great
ServerStatus , slackvpn <-- openVPN auto install script for Slackware 15
Does Kimsufi allow pubic trackers?
HostBrr aff best VPS; VirmAche aff worst VPS.
Unable to push-up due to shoulder injury 😣
Eh. Kinda? They seems pretty lax but will forward the odd DMCA notice, I've seen one in the year I've been with them, I'm not sure what happens after multiple.
This. I can guess who you used previously and suggest Seedhost.eu as a much better alternative. Totally understand wanting to set something up yourself though. Personally, I just don't have the desire to tinker anymore. I get paid to do that 8 hours a day.
i setup a (vbox) vm on my media server.
the vm connects via wireguard to a vps i rent in lux.
all traffic (!local) travels over the vpn and i don't need to fiddle with (potentially) fragile proxy setups.
i can run whatever software i feel like without extra configuration.
it downloads to (and seeds from) the media box's actual storage, which is shared across the lan anyway.
i do also run socks5/proxy on the vps, for browsing the torrent sites from the media server.
none of the chuckleheads running these pirate sites need my home ip, no matter what they tell you.
this has been running (in various forms) for at least a decade.
edit: i should note this isn't exceptionally helpful if you have horrid upstream and are trying to grind uploaded bytes to rank up on some site. it is wonderful for sites that reward long term seeding though.
I ain’t reading all that, but I’m happy for you though. Or sorry that happened.
Fair warning: If you are in the US and use Comcast/Xfinity for your internet provider at home, torrenting on your connection, even with a VPN, will cause your account to be flagged. They heuristic layer 7 packet observation to determine if the pattern of open/closing connections and traffic flow appears like a torrent program and will begin to throttle your connection if they detect you doing it excessively. You will need to inject bogus traffic in the tunnel to mask the true traffic pattern similar to how GFW users use it to mask their traffic as well.
Cheap dedis are my drug, and I'm too far gone to turn back.
Not gonna lie, this makes me want to go out and get Comcast just to see this in action. Do we actually have verification on this?
@PulsedMedia offers seedboxes for cheap. There is no point in struggling with VPN while keeping some computer on with electricity, when seedboxes are really cheap.
comedian^
I ain’t reading all that, but I’m happy for you though. Or sorry that happened.
For public torrents why not use a debrid service like RealDebrid, Alldebrid etc if seeding is not a priority? There are also other services like seedr which allows seeding too. For normal seeding, Oneprovider boxes work great.
Why?
Top banter.